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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28968270">Overpowering Instincts: Revised</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrowlingTitanBaby/pseuds/GrowlingTitanBaby'>GrowlingTitanBaby</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood and Injury, Daemons, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Shifters - Freeform, Stardust - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, Violence, Witches</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:21:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,051</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28968270</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrowlingTitanBaby/pseuds/GrowlingTitanBaby</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren Jaeger isn't like the other students at his college. There were only so many times he could accidentally use his powers without getting in deep shit, only so many ways he could excuse his weird behaviour before the teachers would become suspicious. If only he knew how to describe what he was going through before it's too late.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/2266140">Overpowering Instincts</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrowlingTitanBaby/pseuds/GrowlingTitanBaby">GrowlingTitanBaby</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oh yikes. So, over this whole lockdown situation I've done my best to keep myself occupied, and my brain has ran rampant many times - and the other night, I randomly logged in on here and wanted to re-read my old fics and boy, oh boy, do I want to do these stories justice T.T The plot etc for the original just wasn't going somewhere that I am comfortable writing now that I'm not a smut-driven teen, so I decided that I was going to revise the original fic and... here we are! If you want a general introduction to the themes of this etc please check out the other work under the same title, or - if you don't want to spoiler/confuse yourself - just wait for the next chapter! I'm spacing out my writing a lot more now, not writing it all out in one night and calling it a good piece of work then being unhappy with it and deleting it all, only to start over and burn myself out. It's taken me about 3 hours over 5 days to write this to a point where I'm comfortable posting, which is considerably longer than what it used to take - but, I'm happy with this and I'm proud of myself for not rushing and burning myself out immediately like I've done so many times before ^^ so that's good, I suppose. This chapter is shorter than I'd like but I'm trying to space them out so that I don't just write a 30,000 word chapter and call that chapter 1 lmao, that would be a nightmare for me and a bad standard to hold myself to. Anyways, Enjoy! &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Reiner! Stop!” Historia shrieked, eyes wide in horror as the older boy sat atop Marco, clutching his collar in his fist with his left hand as his right landed on the freckled guy’s face for the umpteenth time. Marco was crying, silently taking the beating because he knew that if he spoke, he’d only worsen the situation. His face was battered, both eyes lined with red swollen bruising, lip split and nose bleeding.</p>
<p>Reiner laughed manically. “Not so tough are you now?” he spat at the younger man, shaking him from his collar until Marco let out a sharp yelp. His shirt had begun to bunch below his sweater, pulling his arms up from below his armpits as the fabric stretched away from the blonde’s clenched fist. Marco remained silent as he took the assault.</p>
<p>“Filthy half-breed!” one of Reiner’s cohorts hollered.</p>
<p>Eren felt nothing but rage while watching the scene, wanting nothing more than to pound Reiner’s square face into the ground, but he could do nothing due to the two men behind him except scream for him to stop. Writhing in their grasp, he watched on as his friend bled and bled onto the stony ground. He screamed like an animal as his friend became limp in the bully’s grasp. His thoughts overrun with rage, blood boiling in his veins.</p>
<p>Marco was as much a part of this college as anyone else, but it wasn’t the first time he had been targeted for his half mortal heritage; older chairmen on the college board had vehemently declined the first proposal for allowing anything other than purebloods into the vicinity, and many of the older students shared the same ideals and discriminatory thoughts towards anyone with mortal blood in their family. Since they had been invited to the establishment, countless half mortals had been lynched and abused on site. It was now 10 years since the first set of half mortals had been offered positions on the courses at the college, and it was still no better.</p>
<p>Eren gawped as the larger man rolled up his sleeves, staring down at Marco with utter disgust.</p>
<p>“Filth like you do not belong in this establishment.” He spoke, his words like venom. He turned to face Eren, grinning maniacally as he reached into his pocket and withdrew a small pocketknife. Historia shrieked in panic as she saw the weapon, turning around from her spot in the room to run. As she neared the door, it slammed shut and Eren heard the door click shut.</p>
<p>“You’re not going anywhere, blondie…” looking at his weapon, Reiner’s face twisted into a snarl. “You’re going to stand there and watch what happens when you dirty half-breeds overstep your boundaries.” His eyes fixated on Marco; he slowly pressed the knife into his temple, his tongue sticking out in manic concentration. The sudden pain caused Marco to scream, and Eren lunged forward, catching the two men behind him off guard as their grip slipped slightly.</p>
<p>Reiner moved with animal like speed and stood, pulling Marco up with him from his hair. Historia moved to attack one of the strangers and threw out her right fist, connecting with his face with a thud. As he staggered back, Eren took advantage of his slight disorientation and made to trip him-</p>
<p>“Not another step, Jaeger!” Reiner bellowed, and Eren obeyed. Freezing in place.  The other goon kicked Eren behind the knee, forcing him down onto the ground before pulling his head up by his hair, not dissimilar to how Reiner had been handling his friend. Historia, frozen in place again by fear, let out a shaky breath and started to whimper. Eren looked to his right to observe his friend as she shook, her entire body convulsing as she let go of the pressure building up over the last few hours; if it weren’t for her wrist band, she would surely be hysterical, and Eren knew that Reiner would finally understand how strong she is. The metal band, however, had to be manually removed by a member of staff.</p>
<p>Eren’s mind thought back for a moment. Eyes moving towards Reiner, he glanced at the larger man’s wrist. His band was missing. Reiner must have been watching him closely, as he looked towards his own wrist and started laughing again. Manically. Filling his lungs with air and projecting loudly into the room, the blonde man bent over as he cackled. “Did you only just notice?” he blurted, laughing still. Eren frowned. How had entered campus without having the band fitted? Had he removed it himself?</p>
<p>
  <em>Shit. </em>
</p>
<p>Marco had been bleeding this entire time. And Reiner was without his power suppression.</p>
<p>Eren’s heart dropped.</p>
<p>Steadily, Reiner moved the knife from Marco’s temple and licked along the blade, the blood soaking into his tongue like water to a sponge. His eyes fluttered closed as he audibly gulped, and his breathing rate and depth increased by double. Now panting, he hurriedly placed the blade back to Marcos face, this time just below his eye, on his cheek bone, and etched a line down his face. Marco’s scream was bloodcurdling, and Reiner continued to laugh menacingly – his tone becoming more villainous by the second. The bastard was practically getting off on torturing him.</p>
<p>Filthy vampire, Eren thought. Or at least, he thought he had thought.</p>
<p>Reiner’s gaze snapped towards Eren.</p>
<p>“What did you say, filth?” Reiner spat, throwing Marco’s body to the ground with a force which had his head bouncing off of the floor. With inhuman speed, he lunged towards Eren and yanked him out of the other man’s grasp, lifting him off of the ground. All breath left his lungs as he was launched into the air, and Reiner connected his other hand with his ribcage, and if he were anyone else it would have winded him.</p>
<p>“I said,” Eren coughed, “filthy. Vampire.” He spat in the larger man’s face. Reiner’s stony eyes fixed on Eren’s as he frowned. Smirking, Reiner continued to punch the smaller man, and although Eren was strong, he wasn’t entirely immune to the pain. Until Reiner had enough of punching, and abruptly grabbed his head, forcing it down onto his rising knee. This, to no surprise, actually fucking hurt, and as his face connected with his knee Eren cried out in pain. Reiner began to chuckle.</p>
<p>“So, you are capable of making noise, Jaeger.”</p>
<p>And so, he repeated the motion – an endless assault on the brunette’s face. Eren started to feel disoriented.</p>
<p>“Marco? Marco!” Historia whispered aggressively; the sound of his friend brought him back to the present. He eagerly waited for Marco’s reply, but after a few more knees to the face, he heard nothing. Historia could heal him if she were free to. Both he and Reiner knew she was capable, but both also knew she could do nothing with the power suppression band. Eren’s body began to tingle with adrenaline, the repeated motion of his face hitting Reiner’s knee gave him something to focus on as he forced himself to silence. A few seconds later, Reiner pulled him back up and brought his face close to his, his disgusting breath entering Eren’s nose.</p>
<p>Reiner inhaled as though smelling freshly baked bread, or cake; he took the smell in to its entirety. Eren grimaced as he thought of the things Reiner would do if given the chance. The smile on his face didn’t waver, as he leaned his face forward, tongue extending towards Eren’s bloody face.</p>
<p>Eren yelped, thrashing against this grip on either side of his face. He kicked out at the huge man’s legs, his steel-capped boots connecting with his shins. Reiner let out a pained grunt, and practically roared as he threw Eren across the room.</p>
<p>Crashing into numerous tables and chairs, Eren fell and slid across the smooth floor. Reiner rushed him, shoving him into the bookcase behind, his pocketknife raised.</p>
<p>“You’re going to regret that, you little cunt.” He growled, forcing the knife into Eren’s abdomen. Eren didn’t flinch when it pierced his skin, pushing through with the sound of tearing paper. It was Reiner who stilled as he heard the faint rip, letting go of the weapon, leaving it sticking horizontally from Eren’s body; it was Reiner whose eyes widened as Eren removed the blade with ease, not a trace of blood on the surface. Adrenaline had taken over without Eren noticing, and his senses suddenly heightened. He could see every speck of dust floating in the air, every hair on Reiner’s skin, every empty vein below Reiner’s skin.</p>
<p>Kicking out his right leg, he launched the brute across the room, and his goons looked obviously panicked as their leader fell into a lump on the floor. Eren’s vision turned greyscale, all colour draining as he focussed. He moved swiftly, practically floating across the room as he approached a slumped over Reiner, knocked out from the force.</p>
<p>“What the fuck are you?” one of the strangers shouted angrily, speeding towards Eren and making to grab his throat – but Eren calmly grabbed his hand, pulling his fingers back until he heard them break and the man let out a bloodcurdling scream. Clutching his injured hand at his chest, he snarled and bared his teeth, hissing. As Eren lunged, the other man pulled at his partner and yanked him away, shoving open a window and launching the two of them out of it. With those two out of the way, he could focus on the bastard who had hurt Marco.</p>
<p>“Eren!” he heard a female voice shout out, repeatedly. He turned in the direction of the sound to see Historia, slumped over. That was enough to snap him out of his state. His vision and hearing returning to normal, he hurried over towards his friends, placing his hand on the blonde’s shoulder, he could feel her entire being shudder in panic, fear, exhaustion… he wasn’t sure.</p>
<p>“Historia…” he spoke, but she flinched at his voice.</p>
<p>She’d never seen him do that. She’d been filled in briefly before, but not in detail. He removed his hand from her and sat next on the other side of Marco’s limp body. He was breathing. It was shallow, but he was in there. “I’m okay,” she whispered, looking at Eren cautiously, “are you… you know?”</p>
<p>“Normal?” he questioned. She nodded. “Yeah,” he breathed, “I’m back.” The sigh she released was immense, and she visibly relaxed.</p>
<p>“What’s going on in there?” A loud voice shouted, as the door pushed open.</p>
<p>Eren and Historia turned to see one of the tutors, Mr Wagner, at the door. He must have smelled the blood. The middle-aged man looked from Eren to Historia, immediately noticing the unconscious boy between them and running over to the desk at the front of the room, pushing the emergency call button beneath.</p>
<p>“Does somebody want to tell me what happened?” he speaks hurriedly, approaching the two and reaching out for Marco’s wrist, checking for a pulse.</p>
<p>Historia looks at Eren in panic, and he knows exactly what she’s worried about.</p>
<p>How do they explain this mess?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mr Wagner carries Marco down to the nurse’s office and some other tutors that Eren isn’t familiar with take Reiner into isolation and call the police. It turns out Mr Wagner is one of the vampire tutors at the college, and Eren’s initial impression of him is blanched. Vampires aren’t his favourite. One of the nurses hurriedly check over Eren and Historia, making sure they are both generally well; Eren hadn’t closed his stab wound before reverting to his mortal form, and so that was dressed and disinfected thoroughly. He winced at the sting of the rubbing alcohol. They are escorted to Mr Wagner’s office and he sits them down. They explain what had happened, for the most part – conveniently leaving out the part where Eren was able to use powers while wearing his suppression band. Mr Wagner records the whole conversation, his brow furrowing as the two mention Reiner’s lack of suppression band, his cohorts and his blood lust rage.</p>
<p>“Mr Braun will spend a day or two at the police station, and I’ll make the higher staff know about this breach of conduct and security.” He explains calmly, though his face shows confused concern. “Bringing a weapon onto campus and being here without his suppression band is blatantly inexcusable. He will most likely lose his privileges.” He doesn’t say that he will be expelled.</p>
<p>At that piece of information Historia visibly tenses, and Mr Wagner places his hand on her shoulder reassuringly.</p>
<p>“I will do everything in my power to prevent anything like this happening again.” He promises, staring at the two intently. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and I’m afraid I can’t make any promises that he will be removed permanently. The higher staff favour pureblood students.” He frowns, and Eren slams his fists on the table.</p>
<p>“How are we supposed to go about our lives knowing that that bastard is still on campus?” he shouts, and Historia starts to cry again – this time out of frustration. The older man sighs, sitting back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We have exams, finals! Campus is supposed to be safe!”</p>
<p>“He will at least be suspended temporarily.” Mr Wagner promises. He is visibly sad, and Eren feels badly about shouting at him. He exhales aggressively, clenching his fists on his lap. There are so many things wrong with this place, Eren thinks, and he all but wishes he could report the discriminatory staff to someone higher up – but there is no one higher up that would listen. Half-breeds don’t get to report purebloods: not if they value their life.</p>
<p>“Marco could have died.” Historia whispers. Eren reaches for her, and takes her hand in comfort, his thumb stroking soothingly.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry Historia,” Mr Wagner, “I will do everything in my power to ensure he isn’t allowed the same freedom as before.” He speaks seriously; he looks at the two of them, and Eren only imagines what they both look like to him. Two scared kids, he thinks. Historia looked as though she had been through hell, Marco’s blood staining her jeans, seeped into the cracks of her nail bed, smeared on her face where she had been wiping away her tears. Eren couldn’t look much better, only just realising his shirt being ripped, covered in blood, his face beaten and bruised. “The higher staff will have no choice but to suspend him, due to the nature of the attack. Considering the involvement of a weapon, his suspension may be extended to two weeks; further considering the fact he somehow got through security without a suppression band – and bring with him two random people…” he looks out of the window, “I can’t see them expelling him from the college.” He admits, obviously disheartened. “We all already knew that, though.” He sighs.</p>
<p>Eren nods slowly.</p>
<p>A knock at the door disrupts the atmosphere, and a nurse opens the door.</p>
<p>“Mr Bott is being taken to the hospital for his injuries.” She drops the information calmly.</p>
<p>Historia sobs again, and Eren tenses. In the back of his head, he’d known Marco would end up in hospital – but he’d briefly forgotten over the previous conversation. “Has he already left?” he asks, and the nurse shakes her head.</p>
<p>“I was going to ask if either of you know which is his locker, so we can send him with his belongings.”</p>
<p>“I know which it is,” Eren replies, “I can get his stuff – Historia?” gently, he places his hand on her back. She looks up at him from her seated position, vision blurry through tears and eyes red. “You coming?”</p>
<p>She wipes at her eyes, standing quickly.</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>Siren blaring, the ambulance transports Marco, Eren and Historia to the nearest hospital. They follow for as long as possible, but Marco eventually goes into the emergency ward and his friends are asked to stay in the waiting area as they check him over and get him situated. Historia hugs Marco’s backpack tightly. Half an hour later and Eren and Historia are allowed into his room, where they sit and watch as nurses and doctors continue to observe his condition – an IV is inserted and he is given pain relief. Another half hour passes, and Marco’s parents arrive, both thanking Eren and Historia for standing up for their son and staying with him when he would have been otherwise alone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As the they walk through the halls of the hospital, the smell of sanitiser and bleach thick in the air, a commotion breaks out behind them. A door slams open, and a patient scrambles across the ground in an inhuman way, throwing themselves against the wall and shuffling across the ground, away from the doctors chasing them. Loud voices are shouting for the patient to stop, but they continue to crawl down the corridor towards Eren and Historia, who try their best to act calm. Someone runs between them from behind and confronts the patient, quickly removing a syringe from their coat pocket and jabbing the deranged person in the neck. The individual screams, a blood curdling gnarly shriek, before becoming limp. Historia does her best not to stare as they are picked up from their position on the ground and quickly carried away.</p>
<p>A doctor appears behind them, quietly.</p>
<p>“Ever so sorry about that.” She starts, and Eren jumps at the sound, caught off guard. He turns to see the doctor, a tall brunette woman, also in a hospital coat. She smiles warmly and continues. “We try our best here to keep all of our patients and visitors safe, but unfortunately we have a few slip-ups every now and again. I hope you can get on with your day!” and as quickly as she appeared, she is leaving again, in the direction of where the patient had come from.</p>
<p>Eren mutters a quiet “yeah, no problem” and Historia a “no worries” before she is out of earshot, and they resume their walk towards the canteen, looking at each other in bemusement.</p>
<p>Historia is the first to speak. “So, do we just assume that that was… you know…” she trails off, unsure.</p>
<p>“Normal?” Eren laughs, “I'm not sure.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Some plot building and introducing new characters! Their relationships and behaviours aren't all going to be the same as the ones we know from the anime/manga, so please try to think of them more as individual people based loosely on the ones we know and love already. Any constructive criticism or compliments are more than welcome, please leave a comment and/or leave kudos if you're enjoying this fic! It really helps me to kick myself up the ass and write some more xD love, Baby &lt;3 <br/>ALSO, I now publish this on Wattpad as well! If you want to give it a like over on there, or prefer to use Wattpad to read, please go here https://www.wattpad.com/user/GrowlingTitanBaby and give it some love &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Walking further through the hospital, Historia suggests grabbing a coffee and some lunch at the cafeteria. Only then does Eren realise he’s practically starving, having only eaten a light breakfast that morning – seven hours ago. Eren agrees eagerly, and they turn down the corridor where the smell of coffee, cake and bread wafts their way. Eren wonders how many times he’s been to a hospital; it can’t have been too many, considering he doesn’t really remember, but he’s positive he’s been to this one before… he just can’t remember-</p><p>“Earth to Eren?” Historia waves her hand in his face and he jolts back in mild surprise. “You in there?” she knocks on his head. Eren wafts her hand away. They move forward in the queue, and Eren’s stomach grumbles impatiently.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry… what wasn’t I listening to?”</p><p>She laughs gently. “Do you have your dairy pills on you or not?” she asks. “AKA, cheese and mushroom or vegan cheese and vegan smoked ham?” she holds the two toasties in each hand, waving them around tantalisingly. Eren frowns in concentration; he <em>does </em>have his dairy pills on him, and he <em>really </em>likes mushrooms, but he can’t resist a vegan toastie when it’s right in front of him. Ever since he’d discovered how gross the dairy industry is, he’d vowed to cut it out as much as possible. He shouldn’t have been having dairy anyway, considering lactose made his insides twist in knots, but cheese is just… He stops thinking about it.</p><p>“Vegan one, please.”</p><p>Reaching the till, they give their toasties to the cashier to be heated and order their coffees in takeaway cups. Waiting at the other side of the till, they stand in comfortable silence.</p><p>“Do you think Reiner will be…?” Historia trails off.</p><p>They both know the answer to that open ended question. The likelihood of him being expelled is zero to none, if not somehow less likely than that. Eren sighs. “We can only hope.” He smiles awkwardly, as they both know it’s a shot in the dark.</p><p>Coffee and lunch in hand, the two sit outside the main entrance, and Eren looks at the large sign above the revolving doors – Sina Hospital: Accident &amp; Emergency. He hadn’t known that the closest hospital was in Sina, but in honesty he was more surprised that he didn’t realise the ambulance had taken them at least an hour away from Trost.</p><p>“Any idea how we get back to Trost from here?” Eren laughs, mouthful of food.</p><p>Historia finishes off chewing her bite of food and points off into the car park to the left of them, standing and picking up the takeaway cup she had placed on the ground by her feet. A figure popped up out of a car, waving enthusiastically.</p><p>“Ymir is here!” she exclaims happily and rushes off to the car. Eren scrambles to put on his backpack, pick up his cup and not choke on his toastie while rushing after her.</p><p> </p><p>Apparently, Historia had rang her while in the ambulance to let her know she would need picking up rather than walking home as usual. Eren couldn’t remember this happening, however, but he wasn’t surprised, and neither was Historia: Marco was the most important thing happening at that point in time. Ymir scooches her seat forward for Eren to jump in the back of the car, smiling at him awkwardly – they’d only met once before, and they were pretty drunk. Historia’s family keep a rather large collection of alcohol, and on her nineteenth birthday she’d thrown a party in the summerhouse in their garden. Eren ended that night sleeping in a wheelbarrow in the shed; thankfully, it was during summer, so he didn’t freeze in his sleep, but he did have horrendous back ache the next morning. Eren thanks her politely and plugs his seatbelt while balancing his coffee between his knees, tucking back into his food. It was good, really good, actually. He’d have to grab one of these again some time.</p><p>Historia reaches behind once she’s plugged in in the passengers’ seat, snatching the coffee from him aggressively and Eren freaks out for a second thinking that he’d just relaxed and spilt his drink. Laughing, Historia places his drink in the cupholder between her and her girlfriend, “it’s safer in there.” She points, and Eren looks at her in annoyance.</p><p>“You can’t just yank a drink from between someone’s knees.” Eren mumbles, and the two women laugh, leaning between them for a small kiss.</p><p>Eren rolls his eyes, “Don’t get your gay in my drink.” He raises his eyebrows, motioning to his coffee between them.</p><p>Historia scoffs, “like you don’t already have <em>the gay</em>.”</p><p>“I vaguely remember you and someone getting off in the corner at Historia’s party…” Ymir trails off, and Eren groans loudly, physically cringing.</p><p>The couple laugh whole-heartedly, and Ymir drives them out of the car park, onto the motorway.</p><p>Historia and Eren tell Ymir about what happened, and partway through Historia places her hand over Ymir’s on the gear stick. Eren feels warmly about the two of them, and he’s forever grateful to Ymir for looking after Historia as well as she does. Even if he doesn’t really know her, she has done so much for him without ever knowing. Historia’s powers were a little haywire before they got together, but once she started talking to Ymir her aura changed immediately. Eren knew she was in love before she even told him she’d started speaking to someone, and he was nothing but happy for her.</p><p>“He’ll be okay,” Ymir says, sincerely.</p><p> </p><p>Coffees drank, food eaten and numerous songs later, they arrive back at Trost; the sun has set, and the dark is cold. Ymir drops Eren off at his dorm as per Historia’s instructions, and he thanks her for the ride. Historia gets out to hug him goodbye, and they share the moment of peace quietly.</p><p>“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Eren exclaims, shoving Historia back into the car. She yelps in surprise but smiles at him once she composes herself.</p><p>“Asshat.”</p><p>“Your asshat!” Eren winks, and Ymir wretches. “Now I remember why I don’t like guys. OW! What was that-”</p><p>“See you tomorrowwwwwww!” Historia shuts the door, and plugs herself in.</p><p>Eren waves them off before turning to wave his key card over the sensor, the door to his dorm complex opening automatically. The receptionist winces when she sees him, and politely waves him over; as he walks over to the desk, she hands him a cool pack from the fridge.</p><p>“Looks like you’ll be needing this.” She remarks. “I received an email from Mr Wagner, he made me aware of the situation.” She smiles sadly for a second, then clicks away at her computer. “The security guards have been made aware as well; every entrance to every building is being watched closely, and all students have been advised to keep their windows closed.”</p><p>Eren nods, holding the pack to his face; the cold stings, but it helps. He’d almost forgotten how he looks in his current state. “Thank you, for this.” He briefly removes the pack from his bruised face and smiles, and she waves her hand in dismissal.</p><p>“Don’t be silly, I know Pyxis doesn’t stock you kids up with first aid gear.” She shakes her head, and the two laugh casually.</p><p>“See you tomorrow, miss.” He says while walking towards the stairs, and she bids him a good evening. Eren walks to his dorm, and the door opens before he can get there.</p><p>“Eren.” Blonde hair is pulled up into a loose ponytail, and Armin’s face is covered in panic. Walking swiftly, he meets Eren halfway, immediately pulling his hand holding the cool pack away from his face. His eyes scan him intently, and he sharply tugs at Eren’s shirt, yanking it up high enough to see the bandage concealing his stab wound. Armin clenches his jaw, his entire face a picture of worry. Eren sighs.</p><p>
  <em>I’m okay, Armin.</em>
</p><p>His brother squints at that, <em>I’d hardly call this ‘okay’, Eren.</em></p><p>Pushing his shirt down, Eren puts the cool pack back on his face and Armin huffs.</p><p>“We all received-”</p><p>“An email telling you what happened, I know.” Eren finishes his sentence, and Armin sighs, straightening his back to stand.</p><p>“This is serious, Eren.” He scolds, brow furrowing. He scratches at his chin and neck, pushing the flyaway hairs from his face. Eren walks past him, walking through the doorway of the dorm and immediately feeling the barrier dampen his senses. Pyxis had fitted their dorm with a magical barrier to keep Eren from going insane; it was one thing to be able to hear everyone, sense everyone, and smell everyone all day, every day – but it was another to try to sleep with it, too. He’d gotten used to the constant overstimulation by now, but having the dorm be a void space where he could only sense himself and his siblings… it was bliss.</p><p>Dropping his backpack on the sofa, he slumped down. Armin followed, closing the door behind them and sitting at the other end of the grey couch.</p><p>“I know this is serious,” Eren sighs, his head lolling back onto the cushions, “but can I at least have five minutes to sit and relax?” he asks, exhaustion slipping through into his tone. Armin nods, standing and walking to the kitchenette, picking up the kettle and filling it at the sink. Eren breathes slowly, meditatively, and pushes his shoes off of his feet. As he breathes, he feels his body start to relax, and he realises that this is the first time in hours that he has actually relaxed; sure, he’d sat in the hospital, and in the car, but it wasn’t the same as being in his own space. The only thing which would be better would be going home.</p><p>A few minutes pass and Armin makes them both a cup of tea, placing them on the coffee table alongside a pack of paracetamol, ibuprofen and a slice of toast. He’d been too tired to even smell the bread in the toaster, apparently. Eren sits up slowly, breaking the tablets out of their foiled packaging and placing the paracetamol in his mouth, downing them with a sip of tea. Armin’s knee is bouncing impatiently, and Eren picks up the slice of toast, taking a large bite before also taking two ibuprofen.</p><p>“Is Marco alright?” he asks quietly.</p><p>“He’ll be alright,” Eren nods, “but he won’t be out of the hospital for another day or two at the earliest.” He remembers the hurried conversations between doctors and nurses. One had said he was lucky to be alive.</p><p>Armin gives a small nod. “I know that Marco’s safety was the most important thing to you at that moment, Eren, but your position could be compromised if Reiner tells anyone about what you did. Never mind if his two friends start telling stories within their circle.” His face is stony, seriousness a front for concern. Eren looks down into his cup.</p><p>“There wasn’t anything else that could have been done.”</p><p>“I know that,” Armin states, “but that doesn’t change that we are now in a predicament.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Eren’s reply is short, and he doesn’t know what is more dangerous: the fact that Reiner is now being held at the police station, that he and his friends have tarnished his name and his position at the college, that they have potentially angered the higher up staff and members of their society – or the fact that he had shifted while wearing his suppression band.</p><p>“I only shifted to stardust.” Eren states, and Armin nods.</p><p>“That’s not too bad then, at least you didn’t go overboard.” They both look at each other in silence. Eren is very aware of what his brother means, and Armin is aware that Eren understands. “Pyxis hasn’t spent all of these years working on ways to keep you alive for you to blow it all up while you’re here, Eren.” His tone is scolding, and Eren can’t help but feel hurt. He knows he’s messed up a few times already this year; a student had claimed they’d seen him heat up his own drink with his palms, but they’d just passed that off as a trick of the light – stardust can’t use magic. Someone had started a rumour that they’d smelt him once straight after a shower in the gym and that he smelt like a witch, and for a week everyone started standing way too close to him – he’d covered that up by false-admitting that he was a chronic sweater, and that he used several types of anti-perspirant to stop from stinking up the classrooms. It was almost impossible to stay inconspicuous.</p><p>“I know.” Eren picks up the slice of toast and continues to chew at it until it is gone. Armin has his chin on his hands, elbows on his knees – thinking. If Eren didn’t know him so well it would look like he was angry, but he knows that his brother is just concerned.</p><p>Although they were only half-brothers, Armin had always been intensely caring towards him; when he had been born, Armin was already five, and had only recently moved in with their mother full-time after being removed from his father. He had zero contact with his dad until he was eighteen – when he’d finally been sober for five years, but by that time they were both under Pyxis’s care. Armin and his dad spoke regularly, and Eren hated how he was subconsciously jealous of him. He knew it was stupid, but the fact that he’d lost both of his parents while Armin had only lost his mother... It was dumb and trivial, and not Armin’s fault at all, but Eren was still annoyed by it.</p><p>“Pyxis won’t be happy about any of this,” he starts, and Eren nods minutely, “he hates that you’re here to begin with, I’m not so sure he’ll let you stay if you’re making enemies with purebloods – pureblood vampires, at that.” Armin rubs his hand over his face, huffing out a sigh.</p><p>“Do you think he’d move me back to the house?” Eren whispers, uncertainty in his voice.</p><p>“He might.” Armin looks at him, and they both share a saddened look. Neither of them wanted to leave the campus, it was helpful for them to be out of the house, out of the way of constant reminders of their parents, what their parents went through, that they were gone.</p><p>“If Reiner is kept at this campus, I can see Pyxis up-and-hauling us back to Shiganshina.” Armin admits, taking a sip of tea.</p><p>“But-”</p><p>“Or, moving us to another campus.” He interjects, head tilting slightly.</p><p>Eren picks up his cup and does the same, pondering the outcome of this situation. The other campus was a few hours from here, in Rose; he’d have to integrate mid-year, with all of the students who already had friends and friend groups – it wasn’t much of a problem, he didn’t need more close friends…</p><p>“Wouldn’t that draw too much attention?” he questions, and they both think.</p><p>People would ask questions, to staff, to other students, to Eren himself; why move from one campus to another mid-year? He was being harassed by another student. Why? Because he’s down on paper as a half-blood. Who was it? If they found out it was someone from the Braun family, it would cause more problems than solve issues. The Braun’s have links everywhere – only an idiot would get on their bad side.</p><p>Eren is, evidently, an idiot.</p><p>“It would.” Armin agrees. “However, isn’t Reiner being held in a cell and being accused of attacking students already drawing a lot of attention?”</p><p>The two groan in annoyance. There was no way this situation would pass smoothly. No way on this earth. If they were in an alternate universe, where mortals were favoured over purebloods, or even where they were seen as equal, then it wouldn’t be so much of a big deal. Unfortunately for them, they’re in a world where anyone who isn’t pureblood is seen as inferior – especially when the higher ups of every school, workplace, business, industry, are pureblooded bigots.</p><p>“We can only hope.”</p><p> </p><p>After their conversation, Eren moved to his room: he takes an involuntary nap as the exhaustion kicks in. When he opens his eyes, he’s still in his bloodied clothes. <em>Right</em>, he thinks, <em>I forgot to change.</em> Moving quickly, he stands upright only to fall back down again. He repeats, slower, and manages to stand without throwing off his body’s centre of gravity – if there were one thing he wished he didn’t get, it was headrush. He removes his clothes, reluctantly putting his t-shirt in the bin, and takes a shower. The water is warm, but his skin burns. As he cleans himself, he takes in the bandage on his stomach; he hadn’t really come to terms with the fact he’d been stabbed. Sure, he’d been in fights before… but never where there were weapons involved. Unless you counted purebloods as weapons. The wound doesn’t hurt, but he does his best to keep it dry, angling himself awkwardly under the stream of water to allow the shampoo and bubbles to wash off of him. Once he feels clean, he steps out of the shower and makes to leave the bathroom but catches sight of himself in the mirror; his face is littered with cuts and bruises, his nose swollen and most likely broken. His torso is bruised too, different colours littering his skin – his solar plexus and stomach a deep shade of purple. He prods at himself, wincing. <em>You could have healed all of this before reverting to normal, idiot.</em></p><p>No longer coated in dry blood, the events of today are becoming a memory. As he dries himself, he realises his bandages are peeling away from his skin, and sighs. He puts on some pyjama shorts and a t-shirt, calling for his brother as he leaves his room and hearing Armin reply faintly from his room. He’s sitting at his desk, flitting through emails, when Eren walks in and asks him to help re-dress his stab wound.</p><p>“I need a medic!” he shouts dramatically, clutching at his stomach and falling onto Armin’s bed.</p><p>Armin snorts a laugh, “give me two minutes.”</p><p>“Brother…help...” He adds to the dramatics, throwing his hand up in the air, grasping at nothing. Armin rolls his eyes.  </p><p>“What ails you, brethren?” He joins in, and Eren smiles.</p><p>“A fatal wound… from battle…” he continues, forcing a few pained sounding coughs which are only half fake – coughing hurts when you’ve been stabbed in the stomach, apparently.</p><p>Armin stands from his desk walking over to him and sitting beside him. He places his hand over his eyes.</p><p>“Be still, dear brother, let death be your escape.”</p><p>“Oi!” Eren shouts, batting his hand away. “Did you just close my eyes?” Armin laughs, standing and walking out of the room. Eren follows him, laughing to himself quietly.</p><p>“I can’t believe you just tried to close my eyes like they do to dead people in the movies.” He scoffs. Armin grabs the first aid box from above the fridge, placing it on the coffee table. Eren sits on the sofa and removes his bandages, looking at his stab wound in wonder. It was red, sore, and held together with butterfly tape. Armin perches on the coffee table, taking a look at it as well.</p><p>“The butterfly tape seems to be dry, and it’s a good job too; I don’t think there’s any of that in here.” He rummages around in the box, pulling out the medical tape, a new gauze patch and some disinfectant wipes.</p><p>They’re discussing how this was now Eren’s most serious injury, overtaking his broken collar bone which had happened when he was only a child, when Mikasa walks opens the door.</p><p>Her face is stoic, hair messy from her bikers’ helmet, and her eyes immediately dart to the two.</p><p>“I got an email.” She speaks, calm. Eren and Armin look at each other carefully, then back to Mikasa as she removes her boots and biker’s suit. She walks over to them, inserting herself between them and looking at Eren’s wound intently. “You didn’t heal yourself?” she questions, confusion in her tone.</p><p>“No, Mikasa, I was too busy making sure my friend was alive?” Eren retorts. Mikasa wasn’t wired the same as him and Armin, he’d been told by Pyxis the day he introduced them to one another. She came from an emotionally abusive household before Pyxis took her on, and she had been beaten and abused when showing any sort of emotion. Her family had a reputation for having ‘hard’ people; emotionally invulnerable, physically strong and built to serve with intense loyalty. When she’d been found by Hannes – one of Pyxis’s employees – she had been sleeping in a shed for three nights, with no food or water. A fight had broken out in their home when members of an opposing gang entered the property in an attempt to steal something, and she had witnessed the brutal murder of her family from an airing cupboard. She escaped with help from one of the maids, who had promised her she would come back. She never did. The maid had managed to set off the emergency alarm but did not live past that. That was how Hannes had ended up there to begin with, with the police.</p><p>After a two-day long operation, they sieged the property and searched for any survivors. Mikasa was only three at the time, but the effect that her starting years had had on her was immense.</p><p>Her steely eyes squint as she stares at Eren, and he has no idea what she’s thinking. As per usual, with Mikasa. She was almost a blank slate. “Is he?”</p><p>“Yes, he is.” Eren sighs, holding back the urge to continue being sarcastic with her. It was always pointless.</p><p>“Good.” Her reply is curt, and she pushes Armin aside gently, her way of asking for his seat on the table. He gives it to her, and he sits where he had earlier.</p><p>She silently starts to dress his wound, her face a picture of stony concentration. This was her way of showing affection, Eren knew, and he appreciated whatever he could get from Mikasa. They sat in silence until she quickly closed the first aid box and took it across the floor to place it back atop the fridge.</p><p>“Thanks.” Eren smiled at Mikasa gently, watching her as she attempted a smile of her own only for her to scrunch her face up awkwardly, quickly returning to her usual stoic appearance. She really wasn’t good at accepting thanks or affection. Armin chuckles gently at her struggle.</p><p>“You’re welcome.” She replies, her words short but sincere. “They need me in early again, tomorrow.” She says, turning and walking off towards her room. “I’ll try to be quiet when I get up.”</p><p>And with that she closes her door, and the two hear the sound of the boiler start up.</p><p>It was always like this. Mikasa would silently leave the house for work at around six in the morning, be there until around seven, get back to the dorm for around eight, have a brief ‘conversation’ with one or both of them and disappear off into her room, to repeat the same thing for six out of seven days of the week. Armin had once questioned if she were exhausted, and she had simply replied with “I’m not sure” before turning away from the conversation.</p><p> </p><p>At three am, Eren’s phone vibrates once on his bedside table. It wakes him briefly, and it’s a singular message.</p><p>
  <em>I’m glad you’re okay. – Mikasa</em>
</p><p>He falls back to sleep almost instantly, but there’s a warmth in his chest. Whatever she couldn’t say out loud, she would always send in a message – and that was enough for him.</p>
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